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   In 1932, rough uncut diamonds imported into the United States were worth an average of $37.68 per carat; cut, but unset diamonds were worth $42.74 per carat.

   Bar silver was worth an average of $0.39 per fine ounce in 1932. The value of a fine ounce of gold was $20.67 up until the United States went off the gold standard in March; exchange value after that point was an average of $28.73 per fine ounce.

-- from the World Almanac and Book of Facts for 1934

  Diamond prices go up (very roughly) by the square of the carat weight, from 0.5 carats to 6 carats. Above 6 carats, price is entirely individual.  Thus price per carat of diamonds will be:

This doesn't consider odd colors or cuts. Keep in mind that  " ... in 1932 worldwide diamond sales [new diamonds, not previously on the market] had been only $100,000." Diamond merchants aren't going to give you a lot of money for your stones right now.

"... Deeply colored red, green and blue diamonds, although the most expensive of gems, are not considered here, since they are so rare... [also not obedient to standards of valuation, due to rarity] are red, green, or blue diamonds, white diamonds of unusual size and brilliancy, rubies of over four carats, emeralds of fine deep color and relatively free of flaws, particularly if of good size, and unusually fine sapphires."

   Prices of gems in America have been affected by "... the reduction in July, 1930, of the American duty on cut gems from 20 to 10 per cent ad valorem."

   Good, well-cut one carat emeralds in 1934 are worth about $450; one carat rubies, about $200; and sapphires, about $120.

"... exceptionally large rubies (3 to 9 carats or more), due to their great rarity, are the most expensive of stones. Such stones bring from $3000 to $7000 a carat." Good, well-cut rubies of two carats are worth about $2500 each.

"Fine large sapphires are by no means as rare as fine large rubies or emeralds, and in consequence the price increase per carat is by no means as great as in those gems: a ten-carat stone might be worth from 40 to 60 times the value of a one-carat stone."

   Emeralds "... of good quality over one-carat, more or less, increase in value by the square of the weight -- a generalization true since the 16th century." Thus a nine carat emerald might be worth $36,450.

-- excerpted from A Historical Study of Precious Stone Valuation, by Sidney H. Ball, in Economic Geology, August, 1935

From Minerals Yearbook 1936:

   1934 imports of diamonds into the United States:   rough, uncut 79,695 carats worth $4,261,921; cut but not set, 330,617 carats worth $15,538,902

   "Recovery in the diamond industry, first noted in the summer of 1932, continued at an accelerated rate in 1935, but the industry cannot be prosperous until the United States, its best customer, enjoys good times. The trade, however, is confident of the future, and virtually every index of the industry improved, in comparison with 1934, by 15 to 75 percent."

   "Sales of rough by the Diamond Trading Co. exceeded £6,000,000, a 55-percent increase over those of 1934."